Graham Hamilton as Hamlet.

What a difference a little emphasis makes. Suddenly an innocent phrase like “country matters” sounds suspiciously like the c-word. A flick of the hand toward the stomach renders an afflicted Ophelia pregnant.

It’s with light touches, not a heavy hand, that director Joseph Haj puts his mark on a streamlined production of Hamlet now being staged at the Folger. The production has its accents – a spare, white, clean-lined set, a sword fight with a tense soundtrack – but overall, this is aHamlet you’ll recognize, a familiar, if contemporary, version of the work.

This Hamlet may not be heavy-handed, but it requires a bit of heavy lifting. Merely a dozen actors tackle the show’s multiple roles, playing double or even triple duty (Deborah Hazlett has two queens to contend with, Gertude and the Players’; Todd Scofield, the show’s most riveting presence, has the Ghost, Gravedigger and Player King to tackle). The result is performances both restrained and otherwise. Stephen Patrick Martin eschews the traditionally bumbling interpretation of Polonius, while Justin Adams’s maudlin Laertes seems out of step with the rest of the cast.